The American strategy was to launch offensives into the Creek territories from four directions. The plan foundered on poor planning and logistics, and only Jackson’s western Tennessee offensive played a critical role.
Jackson established a supply base, Fort Strother, on the Coosa River and dispatched a force to surround the Creek town of Tallusahatchee. In a 30-minute battle on November 3, 1813, John Coffee’s mounted troops killed about 200 Red Sticks. Jackson was soon summoned to the aid of friendly Creeks besieged at Talladega. Major General John Cocke, a political rival of Jackson, led his East Tennessee army away from Talladega. On November 9 Jackson encircled the Red Sticks who were encircling the fort. The militia’s extended front was little more than a skirmish line, backed by Coffee’s mounted troops. Jackson’s inexperienced troops enthusiastically attacked the Red Sticks but when the enemy counterattacked, one brigade retreated, leaving Brice Smith’s company exposed to the full fury of the enemy. The Deacon’s small squad was badly outnumbered, and several attempted to bolt until the old man bullied them back into position.
The militiamen fired a few rounds, and then the Red Sticks were upon them. Billy fell as he stepped back from an onrushing warrior. He frantically tried to fend off the Red Stick with his empty musket, but the man pushed aside the long, unwieldy barrel and raised his war club. Before he could strike, the Deacon crashed into the warrior, parrying the descending club with his tomahawk and using his long-bladed butcher’s knife to kill the warrior immediately. Other Red Sticks rushed by, and as quickly as they had appeared, the enemy troops were gone. Brice Smith’s company suffered numerous casualties in this baptism of fire.
On November 17 Jackson learned that the Hillabees, a Creek tribal group, wished to surrender. Unaware of this on November 18 Cocke’s forces attacked the Hillabee towns, killing 70 and carrying away 250 women and children.
General John Floyd commanded some 3,000 Georgia militiamen, but the Georgia legislature failed to appropriate funds for supplies. By November 1813 Floyd’s force was reduced to about 950 men and 400 friendly Creeks. Despite food shortages, Floyd established a forward base, Fort Mitchell, in Alabama.
Floyd planned a November 9 surprise attack on Autosse, 60 miles (100km) inside hostile territory. The plan foundered on inadequate reconnaissance; the river was too deep to ford, and a second Creek town forced the Georgians to extend their front. Despite heavy losses, most of the Red Stick warriors escaped.
Floyd retreated to Fort Mitchell. In mid-January 1814 he moved into hostile territory and established a camp on Calabee Creek. In the predawn hours of January 27 the Red Sticks attacked. The Red Stick planned to capture two small cannon, but the Baldwin Volunteer Artillery successfully fought off the attackers. Both regular and militia artillery units, with their higher levels of group discipline and morale, longer service history, and a tradition that stressed never allowing a serviceable gun to be lost to the enemy, were often the most steadfast formations in such actions.
Floyd retreated to his base camps, and forces along the eastern boundary of the Creek nation played no further role in the war.
The western force, Choctaws and Mississippi militia under General F. L. Claiborne, augmented by the 3rd US Infantry, was hampered by the threat of a British invasion. Despite a “written memorial” from militia officers complaining of inadequate supplies, tents, and clothing, Claiborne advanced up the Alabama River. He left his baggage train, artillery, and sick at Fort Deposit and marched toward Holy Ground, a Red Stick stronghold.
On December 23, 1813, Claiborne attacked the fortified camp. The frontal attack drove the Red Sticks back against the river bluffs. According to legend the Creek leader William Weatherford escaped by jumping his horse from a bluff into the river.10
The distinctive weapon of the Red Sticks was the wooden war club, dyed red with hematite, a mineral widely available in northern Alabama. Also shown are bone-tipped arrows, and a typical Creek bow. (Author)
The militiamen found about 100 scalps and a letter from the Spanish governor of Pensacola congratulating the Red Sticks on the Fort Mims victory. Claiborne’s troops retreated into Mississippi. Most were mustered out in January 1814, their term of service completed.
Jackson’s army disintegrated when terms of enlistment for his troops expired in December. Only a handful, Billy and the Deacon among them, remained with Jackson. Through the winter the army remained in camp at Fort Strother. Supplies failed to arrive, and the men went hungry in the bitter cold. New recruits were late in arriving, and rumors of British landings in Florida circulated. Scouts reported numerous Red Sticks gathered at Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River.
On January 15 Jackson took his available force – 930 new volunteer militiamen and 100 allied Indians – on a raid he hoped would reduce the resistance facing Floyd. Billy and the other old hands under the Deacon’s command were assigned to march with Captain David Deadrick’s small artillery battery. For three days they marched south along the river, then turned east; their final camp was near Emucfau Creek.
Before dawn on January 22 the Red Sticks attacked, but Coffee rallied the experienced men. When Coffee counterattacked, he was cut off and withdrew. Again the Red Sticks attacked, and again Coffee counterattacked. Throughout the daylong fight Billy and the artillery held a position near the creek.
On January 23 Jackson reluctantly decided to retreat. Burdened by wounded, they camped that night near the crossing of Enitachopco Creek, about ten miles away. Jackson feared another attack at the usual stream crossing and on January 24 marched toward an open area of forest alongside the creek.
As the column crossed the stream, the Red Sticks fired a ragged volley and burst out of thick cover. Many of the new militiamen fled, but Billy’s small group held fast. A Red Stick rushed at him with club upraised, and Billy shot him in the face, the heavy ball blowing out a cloud of blood and bone. With no time to reload, Billy quickly pulled the tomahawk from his belt as a Red Stick leaped onto a wounded militiaman. Billy smashed the hatchet into the man’s skull, feeling the crunch as the dull edge went through bone. Musket balls whizzed past as men farther back fired into the melee.
The single cannon roared out from a nearby position. Billy saw several Red Sticks knocked off their feet by grapeshot. Almost as soon as they came, the Red Sticks melted away in the face of the cannon fire.
Jackson collected his panicked troops, and the column limped back toward Fort Strother. Politicians were desperate for good news, and the small battles were praised from Nashville to Washington. A flood of new recruits helped to spread the glorious tales of the fight back, to the amusement of the men who were actually there.
This National Park Service gun crew is positioned with a six-pounder gun at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park. The annual re-enactment is held at the same time of year as the battle; note the early spring vegetation. The wooden gun carriage is painted light blue, with black ironwork in the fashion of the period. (Author)
HORSESHOE BEND BATTLEFIELD
This battle site is one of a few that are wholly contained within a national park, and preserved from commercial encroachment. Jackson sent Coffee’s Mounted Brigade and the Cherokees to the left bank to cut off the escape of any Red Sticks. The 39th US Infantry, supported by the (West) Tennessee Militias bore the main role in the attack, though all units participated as indicated by casualty roles.
The climactic battle – Horseshoe Bend
General Pinckney, overall commander in the South, was impressed that Jackson could win battles with 60-day militiamen, and Jackson received his long-wished reinforcement, the 39th US Infantry. Jackson used the 39th to enforce a new level of training and discipline on his often rebellious militiamen. The regulars provided Jackson with a highly disciplined force, answerable only to him. As a result he issued a precisely worded order to all his men: “Any officer or soldier who flies before the enemy without being compelled to do so by superior force and actual necessity shall suffer death.” The men who had fought in the two small battles used the remainder of their terms to construct boats to haul supplies down the Coosa River. All was not going well for Jackson. One of his generals refused to bring his troops into camp, trying to extract a promise of three-month terms of service, and John Cocke continued to encourage disobedience. Jackson ordered Cocke arrested, but he had already left to return home.
Eventually a new army was assembled. One of the new units was the 1st West Tennessee Volunteer Militia, and Billy and the Deacon transferred into Captain James McMurray’s company.11
On March 14, 1814, the expedition marched south, with the 39th Infantry transported by boat. The army numbered 2,400 white troops reinforced by about 500 friendly Creeks and Cherokees. On March 24 Jackson left his forward base, widening an old trading trail toward Horseshoe Bend.
Battlefield archaeology reveals progressively more about the battle site at Horseshoe Bend. These artifacts on display in the museum include, clockwise from top, an iron axe head (with restored handle), three-pounder (47mm) and six-pounder (57mm) cannonballs, stone arrowheads, a .38-caliber (9.6mm) bullet mold (probably for a pistol), iron grapeshot in two sizes, and oxidized musket balls for .44-caliber (11mm) and .69-caliber (17.5mm) muskets. (Author)
On the frigid morning of March 27, 1814, officers rousted the men out of their blankets. After a meal of salt pork and hardtack, they set off on a march through the forest. The captain tried to describe the plan as best he knew it.
“Spies say the Red Sticks are in a big bend of the river. Coffee’s mounted men have circled downriver to cut off any who try and get away. Us and the regulars are the main attack,” the captain said.
The militiamen could clearly see the formidable Red Stick defenses. The river made a broad loop, and across the neck of land was a log barricade. The artillerymen were already busy emplacing two cannon, a six-pounder and a three-pounder, on a knoll that was the nearest point to the barricade.
“Take a knee, boys,” instructed one of the officers. “This will take a while.” Billy made himself as comfortable as he could in the cold, damp leaves. At about 10:30 a.m. the larger of the two cannons boomed. The two-inch ball embedded itself in the barricade.
The bombardment drove the defenders into frenzied activity. The prophets, religious fanatics who were the heart of the Red Stick movement, exhorted the defenders. Many wore animal tails fastened to their upper arms, which flapped around as they waved their arms.
“Never mind them, boy,” muttered the Deacon, who had traded with the Creeks and knew many men on the other side of the log wall. “See that ol’ fat man there, by them redbud trees?” He pointed a bony finger toward a grove of trees resplendent with reddish-purple winter flowers. Billy saw a stocky middle-aged man who stood and let the activity swirl around him.
“That’s Menawa, their big chief. Menawa’s like a lot of the old chiefs. He didn’t want to fight, but he does it smart. Like that log wall. Better’n any fort we ever built,” the Deacon snorted.
Billy could see that the cannons were accomplishing little. Hits on the barricade splintered the pine logs, but the earthen fill absorbed the impacts. Riflemen fired at the defenders but accomplished little. Occasionally Billy glimpsed Jackson as he rode to and fro across the front. For two hours the futile cannonade continued.
Shortly after 11:00 a.m. a mounted militiaman rode up to Jackson and pointed toward the far point of the river bend.
“What’s happening, Deacon?” asked one of the men.
“Shush!” Deacon replied, and cupped one hand to his good ear. “That’s musketry,” he said, pointing toward smoke starting to rise from inside the Red Stick fortress. Red Sticks began to run away from the barricade, toward the river. To their right the drummers of the 39th Infantry began to beat assembly, and their own drummer joined in. Men began to scramble to their feet.
An illustration of the Red Stick Barricade. The sophisticated double wall of pine logs with an earth fill effectively absorbed the fire of Jackson’s artillery, protecting the defenders. Portholes pierced the double wall, but the construction is uncertain. Some restorations show a row of sharpened stakes set slanting outward along the outer wall of the barricade.
Today all that remains of the Red Stick barricade, a sophisticated work of military engineering for the early nineteenth century, is a double row of postholes discovered by archaeologists. (Author)
“Boys!” shouted a lieutenant. “Friendly Indians have crossed the river and taken the foe from the rear!” The militiamen began to arrange themselves in a ragged line. “Fix bayonets!”
A chief named Whale had swum the frigid river and stolen a dugout canoe. He ferried more Cherokee across to seize other canoes. Now a sizeable force was inside the fortified river bend.
Billy heard shouted orders and the drums of the 39th began to roll, followed by their own. The regulars advanced in front of the ragged line, moving slowly and deliberately toward the barricade.
Halfway across the open ground a few militiamen broke into a run toward the barricade, yipping like hounds. The rest followed, so that the militia struck the barricade only shortly after the deliberately advancing regulars. The militia attack veered to one side, where the log barricade was slightly lower.
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ASSAULT ON THE BARRICADE, HORSESHOE BEND The Red Stick position at Horseshoe Bend was a combination of a natural defensive position formed by the sweeping bend of the Tallapoosa River, with a sophisticated barricade to close off the narrow land approach. The barricade consisted of a double log wall with earthen fill, pierced by firing loopholes. Details of how the loopholes were constructed are unknown, and some archaeological interpretations depict a row of sharpened wooden stakes protruding outward from the base of the wall. A prolonged cannonade directed at the wall had no effect. The main assault was led by the US Army’s 39th Infantry, with Tennessee militia infantry both acting as forward skirmishers and flanking the Army infantry in the attack. The day-long battle was quite brutal, and even the reserve militia units suffered casualties. Note that several of the militiamen carry brightly decorated keg canteens, and one wears an animal-skin cap, which were actually fairly rare. Wooden war clubs were the favored close-combat weapons of the Red Sticks, and a variety of types are seen here. |
Muskets fired through loopholes in the log wall, and a few militiamen were struck. Others were pierced by bone- and stone-tipped arrows. Billy shoved the muzzle of his weapon, loaded with buck and ball, into a loophole and fired into the mass of Red Sticks beyond. Men tugged at weapons that appeared through the loopholes. The wall became a fortress for both sides as they exchanged fire through the loopholes.
Billy scrambled atop the wall. A Red Stick grabbed at him, but Billy yanked the man toward him and smashed the butt of his weapon into his face. The man tumbled backward.
Billy could see the regulars in action farther along the wall. An officer briefly stood on top of the wall, until he was shot down. A very young officer stood on the wall waving his men onward and was struck by an arrow. Fumbling at the wooden shaft protruding from his bloody thigh, he clubbed a Red Stick with his pistol and pulled his sword.12
Militiamen were already over the wall and among the enemy. Another man fired his musket into a nearby Red Stick, deafening Billy. Billy nearly tumbled into the maelstrom below, and his vision jittered from the concussion.
As additional militiamen scrambled over the barricade, their superior weaponry began to tell against the Red Sticks. Only about one in four Red Sticks had a firearm, and many of those were nonfunctional. The rush of men to defend against attack from the river had also fatally weakened the Red Stick defense of the barricade.
Red Sticks ran from the barricade, the initial trickle growing into a rout. Among the last to go were some of the prophets. One danced in front of Billy, waving his arms and exhorting his followers. Billy loaded his weapon with double ball and at close range fired into the man’s chest.
The day became the most brutal of Billy’s life as the battle degenerated into absolute chaos. Militiamen advancing from the landward side and allied Indians coming from the river mixed with Red Sticks who were fighting, fleeing, and attempting to hide. Red Sticks tried to escape down the icy river, but Coffee’s mounted riflemen on the outside bank carefully shot them. Bodies sank, others floated downstream to lodge in bushes or on gravel bars. Many hid under overhanging riverbanks, only to be relentlessly picked off by the riflemen. The river was purple with blood, the sky hidden by a haze of smoke.
Billy and his comrades searched the underbrush and huts for survivors. Wounded warriors were dispatched with tomahawks or bayonets. When fired upon from inside a collapsed shelter, one of the sergeants had his men fire a volley into the rubble. He flung a burning log from a nearby fire to set aflame the dry boughs of the collapsed roof. The militiamen took a short rest as they listened to the screams from inside the burning hovel.
Late in the day Billy and others helped gather women and children. The weeping noncombatants were prodded toward an open area where others guarded a large group. One guard pulled aside a boy of about ten. Lifting him off the ground by his hair, he slashed the boy’s throat with his knife and dropped the writhing body. “Pups grow up to be wolves,” he said, wiping the knife with some grass.
“There’ll be no more of that,” growled the Deacon. “Ain’t no cause to kill innocents.”
“Shut up, ol’ man. They’s Injuns, one the same as another.”
The Deacon put his hand on his tomahawk and took a step forward.
Both men were brought up short by the double click of a weapon being brought to full cock. An officer pointed his pistol casually into the air.
“You,” he said, pointing at the murderer, then to one side. “Over there. The General says there’ll be no more killing of noncombatants. Deacon, assemble the boys. The General wants an accurate count of enemy bodies tomorrow.” Under pressure to justify the cost – economic and political – of campaigns, “body count” was an important measure of success to the generals.
Jackson and Coffee believed that only a handful of Red Sticks escaped, though Talwatustunugge (a Hillabee, wounded nine times that day) reported that as many as 200 had fled.
The next day militiamen scoured the battlefield looking for enemy bodies. The nose was cut from each and carried away to be counted. Some took the opportunity to cut away earrings, gorgets, and other silver jewelry, or other valuables. Flocks of turkey vultures and crows watched the men’s activities. There would be no effort to bury the Red Stick dead; there were far too many of them – 557 noses counted, in addition to 300 or so lost in the river. An unknown number were never found in the forest. Carrion birds and scavenging animals would cleanse the battlefield.
Some 300 women and an unknown number of children were marched toward Fort Talladega to be taken as slaves by the Cherokee and friendly Creeks. Jackson himself sent an orphaned Creek child to Nashville, where he was renamed Andrew Junior and adopted by Jackson and his wife, Rachel.13
The army marched back to Fort Williams, but as usual, promised supplies had not arrived. With only five days’ rations the army scoured the west bank of the Tallapoosa River. The searching militiamen found little food, since the Creeks were also starving. Jackson’s force and another under regular Army officer Colonel Homer Milton, on the east bank of the river, arranged a rendezvous at the confluence of the Tallapoosa and Coosa rivers. On April 17 Jackson’s column staggered into Milton’s camp, only to discover that Milton had left the longed-for food supply behind. The men had little care that Milton disputed Jackson’s seniority (Jackson was a state militia officer), but even the Deacon cursed Milton in fluent biblical prose. Thus far the war had consisted mainly of starving.
The situation worsened with the arrival of additional troops from Mississippi under another disputatious regular, Colonel Gilbert Russell, and aristocratic-acting militia from the Carolinas under General Joseph Graham. Quarreling over seniority was finally resolved by the arrival of General Pinckney, an admirer of Jackson.
Jackson expected another battle, but the starving Creeks surrendered singly and in groups. Among them was William Weatherford, the most capable of the Red Stick leaders, who had a sizeable reward on his head. He boldly strode into Jackson’s tent and made an impassioned speech, imploring Jackson to do with him what he would, but to spare his people. Impressed, Jackson pardoned Weatherford despite demands for his execution.
This view is looking upstream at the site where the Cherokee allies crossed the river to take the Red Stick position in the rear. Red Stick canoes taken from the right bank (to the left of photo) were used to ferry fighters across the river. Coffee’s Brigade of mounted riflemen and “mounted gunmen” (armed with smoothbore muskets) positioned along the slightly higher ground obscured by the trees slaughtered any Red Sticks who tried to escape down the river. (Author)
The Americans rushed to negotiate the Treaty of Fort Jackson (August 9, 1814), which punished the friendly Creeks even more harshly than the remaining Red Sticks, who did not recognize the treaty. The Americans had little time to spare for the Creeks: the British had at last taken an interest in the southwestern frontier.
10. Some researchers have disputed this almost cinematic exploit, insisting that he simply rode along the shore below the bluffs.
11. The vast majority of militiamen served their entire term of service with a single unit, but records exist documenting transfers between units.
12. This was Ensign Sam Houston of the 39th US Infantry, a unit recruited largely in eastern Tennessee. Sent to Jackson’s home to recuperate, he became a political protégé, a leader of the Texas Army in the war of independence against Mexico, the first President of the Republic of Texas, and a US Senator.
13. Andrew Junior died before attaining adulthood, leaving the widowed Jackson with no heirs.